Re: Recommendation for a CL data structures library

[Hyman Rosen]

On 3/29/2010 11:04 AM, RJack wrote:
> The GPL is preempted by 17 USC sec. 301

The GPL is a copyright license which authorizes certain actions
based on the exclusive rights given to copyright holders by
federal copyright law. The federal preemption of state copyright
equivalence provisions is completely irrelevant to the GPL.

> it is unenforceable under contract law

The GPL is a copyright license which authorizes certain actions
based on the exclusive rights given to copyright holders by
federal copyright law. No one has permission to otherwise copy
and distribute GPL-covered works, so anyone who does so without
obeying the requirements of the GPL is infringing copyright.

> and is a misuse of copyright

Misuse of copyright, when applied at all (its appearance is rare
as hen's teeth), is found in anti-competitive and anti-trust
contexts. As Daniel Wallace found, courts do not find that the
GPL creates such a context, because competition laws exist to
benefit the public, not to benefit competitors.

> All this discussion of the legal consequences of the GPL is
> delusional tilting at Windmills.

Rather, all of this anti-GPL crankery consists of deliberately
distorting copyright law and case law to reach false conclusions.
None of these false conclusions have been upheld by courts, nor
are they likely to be, leaving anti-GPL cranks no outlet but to
rail on the internet.